Gerald Beaulieu’s crow sculptures weigh 386 kilograms and are 5 metres long. Made out of used tires, they are “public memorials to the dead . . . . Larger than life and made of the material that often kills them, they are impossible to ignore.” Crows are scavengers attracted to roadkill. And yet, in the process of cleaning up our roads, they themselves are often killed.

Bringing attention to the wildlife that is killed every day on our roads isn’t an easy task. “Beaulieu expresses this complicated subject in the most impactful and palatable way. By using pieces of vehicles to create the works - the tires themselves - he deftly turns road-killed crows into impossible-to-ignore visible reminders. They die on the road because of us.”

Photo credit: Imgur Photos

Nicole Marie Burton “believes that comics, because they are relatively inexpensive to produce, are a great medium to amplify marginalized voices.” She recently illustrated her first graphic novel about two young people who find work in the Canadian oil industry.

Carla Scotto shares her “eco-sassy art” on Instagram. There are lots of images reminding people to reduce their plastics as well as one reminding people not to feed the ducks: “Did you know it’s ducked to feed ducks bread? Not only does it cause malnutrition but mouldy leftovers hurt local water quality opt for seeds, frozen peas, oats, corn, greens - or nothing at all so they learn to forage for themselves.”

In his Unhappily Ever After project, Jeff Hong shocks us by inserting Disney characters into modern-day reality –the Lion King lies dead on the African plain, while Pooh’s Hundred Acre Wood has been clearcut.

The sculptures in Mathilde Roussel’s Lives of Grass, which are “made of soil and wheat grass seeds strive to show that food, it’s origin, it’s transport, has an impact on us beyond it’s taste. The power inside it affects every organ of our body. Observing nature and being aware of what and how we eat might make us more sensitive to food cycles in the world – of abundance, of famine – and allows us to be physically, intellectually and spiritually connected to a global reality.”

Tuesday, 26 March 2019

Upcoming EventsWild Seeds (until Apr. 30) Natasha Yokoyama-Ramsay’s photography exhibit at Calories restaurant is intended to “show the beauty within the plants and how they are similar to human life."

Looking AheadProject Albany, Apr. 15 Public Pastures - Public Interest (PPPI) has raised concerns about the proposed Project Albany potash mine near Francis and Sedley. They note areas of native grassland that need to be protected as well as concerns about air and water quality and wildlife habitat. Comment on the Project Albany website before Apr. 15 or send your comments to PPPI for inclusion in their submission.

Action on Climate Change through Education, May 10-12 (Saskatoon)
The EECOM 2019 conference, to be held in Saskatoon May 10-12 will explore action on climate change through education.

“Perhaps you are perfectly happy drinking out of a Saudi Arabian beer can, but you could also demand refillable glass like they use everywhere else in the world. We need to build a circular, closed-loop economy, and there's no room in it for one-way cans.”

Wolf and grizzly bear activity in important springtime habitat in Banff National Park doubles when the Bow Valley Parkway is off limits to people during the mandatory overnight closure.

EcoSask News is a weekly round-up of local news and events. Email us if you have items you would like us to include. You can follow EcoFriendly Sask by liking us on Facebook, following us on Twitter, or by email (top right corner).

EcoSask News is a weekly round-up of local news and events. Email us if you have items you would like us to include. You can follow EcoFriendly Sask by liking us on Facebook, following us on Twitter, or by email (top right corner).

Thursday, 14 March 2019

Insectaggedon – the media has been full of stories about the rapid decline in the world’s insect population. And yet, is it any wonder? Pronghorn are graceful, owls are mysterious, pandas are adorable, but we don’t show insects much love. In fact, our first reaction when we spot a spider in the house or an ant hill in the garden is to destroy it. We spray our gardens and crops with pesticides, paying little attention to the impact this will have on other wildlife or the environment as a whole.

That’s Amazing

“Well, let me tell you, ants are the dominant insects. They make up as much as a quarter of the biomass of all insects in the world. They are the principal predators. They're the cemetery workers.” (E. O. Wilson)

Insects are also amazingly beautiful. Fireflies light up the night. Jewel beetles have iridescent, brilliantly coloured bodies. The wings of butterflies and moths offer a diversity of rich colours and patterns. The Flight of the Bumblebee by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov pays homage to a common insect.

Insects have influenced both religion and culture. The Buddhists viewed cicadas as a symbol of resurrection because of their cyclical reappearances. The humble dung beetle played a role in ancient Egyptian art and religion. “People saw how the scarab beetle (Scarabaeus sacer) rolled a ball of manure along the ground and concluded that a giant celestial dung beetle must roll the sun across the sky each day.” Silkworms – and the silk they produced – were a driving force in opening up trade between Europe and China and led Christopher Columbus to the Americas in his search for the quickest sea route to the Orient.

Engineers designing shock absorbers for a fighter jet studied grasshopper legs. The venom from deathstalker scorpions is being used in clinical trials to fight cancer. Cockroaches thrive in filthy environments thanks to the super antibiotics in their brains – antibiotics that may someday help humans to fight off bacteria that no longer respond to current medical options.

Many insects display superpowers that cannot be matched by humans. Dragonflies have very small brains, but they successfully capture their prey 97% of the time by focusing on one particular insect and ignoring all the rest. When threatened, bombardier beetles spray their attacker with a “boiling hot mixture of caustic chemicals. . . . The beetle itself is not harmed by the fiery chemical reaction. Using two special chambers inside the abdomen, the bombardier beetle mixes potent chemicals and uses an enzymatic trigger to heat and release them.”

Insects are often caring parents: “Giant water bug fathers carry their eggs on their backs, keeping them oxygenated and hydrated. . . . Bess beetles form family units, with both parents working together to rear their young. Their relationship is so sophisticated they've developed their own vocabulary and communicate with each other by squeaking.”

All I’m Asking is for a Little Respect

“If all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago. If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos.” (E. O. Wilson)

Reports of declining insect numbers have dominated the media over the past few years. Although there have been flaws or gaps in some of the research,* there is no doubting that the populations of many insect species are declining rapidly.

Despite recognition that shrinking insect populations will have harmful consequences to the ecosystem as a whole, there has been a limited concrete response. Researchers deplore the lack of funding, noting that only a few species are being monitored on a consistent basis – honey bees, monarch butterflies, some species of mosquitoes. What funding is available is often focused on protecting agricultural crops and doesn’t acknowledge the broader relevance of insects to our ecosystem.

The lack of awareness of insects’ importance is demonstrated by their absence from educational curriculum and textbooks. A study of 88 introductory biology textbooks published since 2000 showed that they “contain 75% less insect-related material than those published before 1960; the average modern text now allots just 5.67 pages to insects, accounting for a mere 0.59% of book content.” The study’s authors “place these trends within a larger underrepresentation of insects in science, and also a decline in appreciation for both biodiversity and natural history. Pages once devoted to animals and plants are now reserved for genetics and cell biology. The effect is one of detachment from nature in general and insects in particular.”

Conservation organizations fail to counter society’s lack of respect for insects. The cuddly panda is the icon of the World Wildlife Fund. The Canadian Wildlife Federation invites donors to adopt “a beautiful bear . . . a whimsical wolf . . . a magnificent moose” – there’s not even a cute little ladybug.

Unsung Heroes

“I'm obsessed with insects, particularly insect flight. I think the evolution of insect flight is perhaps one of the most important events in the history of life. Without insects, there'd be no flowering plants. Without flowering plants, there would be no clever, fruit-eating primates giving TED Talks.” (Michael Dickinson)

Paul Manning, a doctoral student in zoology at the University of Oxford, describes insects as “the unsung heroes, the little things that run the world” but urges people to move beyond their functional importance to a broader appreciation of insects: “When we experience the fascinating world of insects firsthand, the dominant dialogue of ‘insects as ecosystem service providers’ begins to shift. Instead, we start to recognise the beauty, mystery and wonder of the insect world for what it is: beautiful, mysterious and wonderful. Through building a stronger appreciation of the important inherent value of insect biodiversity, hopefully ‘what do they do for us?’ will share more space with ‘what can we do for them?’ ”

Indigenous Renewable Connections, Mar. 20 (Saskatoon)
Indigenous employees, students and businesses along with renewable energy employers and industry are invited to make connections and build relationships at the Workforce Connex event at the U of S, Mar. 20 from 8:30 am-4:30 pm.

EcoSask News is a weekly round-up of local news and events. Email us if you have items you would like us to include. You can follow EcoFriendly Sask by liking us on Facebook, following us on Twitter, or by email (top right corner).

Balancing Self-Care & Community Care, Mar. 11 (Saskatoon)
The Saskatoon Enviro Collective is hosting a potluck supper and discussion about the interplay between self-care and community care from 6:30-9:30 pm, Mar. 11. Register early as spots are limited.

Multiple Species Management Workshop, Mar. 12 (Consul)
Landowners and managers will discuss their experiences in implementing multiple-species management plans from 1-5:30 pm, Mar. 12, in Consul. This will be followed by a conservation appreciation supper hosted by Nature Saskatchewan.

Pre-Election Forum on the Climate Crisis, Mar. 13 (Fort Qu’Appelle)
The Qu’Appelle Valley Environmental Association is holding a pre-election forum on the climate crisis from 7-9 pm, Mar. 13, in the Treaty Four Governance Centre in Fort Qu’Appelle. Elizabeth May will be speaking; other national party leaders were invited but declined to attend.

Looking AheadFridays for Future, Mar. 15 (Regina)
As part of the Global Climate Strike for Future on Mar. 15, participants will be meeting in front of the Legislative Building in Regina from noon-1 pm.

Bridging the Gap, Mar. 31 (Coronach)Climate Justice Saskatoon will be holding a workshop in Coronach on Mar. 31 to discuss the community’s transition away from coal. Message Climate Justice Saskatoon if you’re interested in attending.

The provincial government’s proposal for a possibly 6-lane freeway around Saskatoon was approved around 2005 but with no environmental assessment and minimal public input. The proposed location would cut through both the Small Swale and the conservation zone of the Northeast Swale about ½ km from the North Commuter Highway through the Swale and the bridge would be located about the same distance from the new Chief Mistawasis Bridge. Northeast Swale Watchers are urging residents to express their concerns online.

In response to concerns raised by Birds in Real Danger and Living Sky Wildlife Rehabilitation, the Meewasin Valley Authority (MVA) has included a more rigorous assessment for bird-friendly building design in its review process and the City of Saskatoon has begun to develop bird-friendly building guidelines and is publishing a Healthy Yards pamphlet with tips to help homeowners protect birds from collisions with glass. Both the University of Saskatchewan and the MVA have added dots to some of their windows to prevent bird collisions.

EcoSask News is a weekly round-up of local news and events. Email us if you have items you would like us to include. You can follow EcoFriendly Sask by liking us on Facebook, following us on Twitter, or by email (top right corner).

Sunday, 3 March 2019

It’s easy to imagine that homes in Europe operate in much the same way as homes in Canada, but that’s not the case.* From locking the door to three-pronged plugs, there are different ways of doing things. This certainly applies to energy saving options.

Heating the House
Winters are obviously warmer in Europe than on the Canadian Prairies, but many of the tactics used by Europeans to save energy when heating their homes could apply in Canada.

Many homeowners program their heating system to come on for a couple of hours in the morning and a couple of hours in the evening. They don’t heat their homes during the day when they are active or out of the house or at night. You can override the thermostat settings, but that requires thought and action as opposed to programming the heat to be on all the time automatically.

Some households supplement their household heating system with a wood stove. This is a mixed blessing, especially in cities, as wood stoves can be a major source of indoor and outdoor air pollution. There are ways of tackling this with more efficient stoves and improved fuel sources.

Smaller homes or apartments that use electric heat sometimes save energy with a night storage heater. It looks very much like a normal radiator but operates differently. The electricity comes on for several hours during the night when electricity is much cheaper (about a third of the price) and is stored as heat in a large brick. The heat is then slowly released during the day. You can turn the heat up or down, but when the stored heat is used up, no more will be available until the following day.

Heat loss is kept to a minimum by hanging a heavy curtain in front of outside doors or closing the shutters on the windows at night. The shutters play a double role as they are closed in the summer to keep homes cool during the heat of the day.

Laundry
Very few homes in Europe have a clothes drier and, if they do have one, they use it sparingly. Clothes are hung to dry on a clothes horse or outdoor clothesline or draped over radiators and stairwell banisters.

Some households only run the washing machine or dishwasher at night in order to take advantage of cheaper electricity rates.

Hot Water
Many European homes have an immediate hot water supply – but not all. In some homes, you have to switch the hot water on before you have a shower or wash dishes, and you may have to wait a significant length of time before there is sufficient hot water to take a bath. It’s not as convenient as you have to plan in advance, but you save energy by not continually reheating the water stored in the tank.

Phantom Energy
Many modern electronic devices draw energy even when they’re not in use – televisions, computers, chargers for telephones and tablets. You can avoid phantom energy by unplugging devices when not in use or by using a power bar which can be turned on and off. The British have an additional option as most socket outlets have a switch to turn power on or off at the source. They don’t always take advantage of this option, but it’s certainly more convenient than a power bar.

Lighting
Lights in many apartment building hallways in Europe aren’t on 24/7. Instead, you turn them on when you enter a hallway or stairwell and they go off automatically a few seconds later, saving money as well as energy.

* Penny McKinlay has been housesitting in the United Kingdom and France for several months every winter for the past 5 years and has learned to adapt to different ways of operating a home.

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“Be the change you want to see in the world.” Mahatma Gandhi

EcoFriendly Sask strives to inform, encourage, and support Saskatchewan environmental initiatives. As a small, personal undertaking, we provide an online publication as well as grants to support local environmental projects. The Calendar page lists upcoming events, and we maintain the conversation on Twitter, or like our Facebook.

Individuals and organizations are encouraged to apply for grants of up to $500 to support local projects that will benefit the environment.